School days
by ILYmarycrawley
Summary: Future fic. Mary is waiting for her son to come back from school. But his day didn't went as it usually does. Exploring Mary and George relationship.


A/N I haven't forgotten about the other story. Do not worry. I just had this little idea in my head for awhile and I needed to write it down. It's nothing impressive but please tell me what you think!

Mary was waiting for her son to come home. It was such a beautiful day, sunny and warm. Which had been a very rare thing in the past few weeks. She had taken the habit of walking down the long gravel path to greet him after his day at school. It had been their little ritual since his very first day of school 4 years ago. How excited he had been then, she recalled.

* * *

"This means that I'm all grown up now Mama!" George said rather loudly, the excitement showing on his tiny little face.

"You'll grow a lot more darling. And you'll learn all sorts of new things at school." She smiled down at him trying to put is collar in place. Was this the day that her baby was not really a baby anymore? How she wished that Matthew could be here today, to see his son off to his first day of school. He would have been so proud.

"Will I be as tall as Grandpapa?" The five years old asked with hope.

"Perhaps even taller!"

George beamed at his mother's answer. His Mama was never wrong; he knew that for a fact. So the chances of him becoming taller than his dear grandfather were very good indeed.

"Mama?"

"Yes darling."

"Did Papa went to my school when he was tall like me?"

"No, he did not." She said taking George in her arms. She old him tightly, her dear boy. "Your Papa went to school in Manchester, because that's were he grew up. But you know that already don't you?" George nodded so she continued. "But he loved it here you know darling, and it was his idea to send you to that school."

"He told you that?"

"He did." Mary said softly playing with his dark brown locks, the only real trait he had inherited from her. Everything else, his piercing blue eyes, his smile, his gentleness. It was all Matthew. "I am so proud of you, and your Papa would be too."

* * *

So many things had happened since then. She was now remarried to a very charming man. It had taken her 6 years to be able to say yes again. George had received a little sister has a Christmas present 2 years ago. And it was, according to him "the best present in the whole world!" Mary could now affirm that she was happy, if someone asked her. Life had been kind enough to give her two marvellous children and a loving husband. It had taken her a lot of time to be able to admit to herself that she had romantic feelings towards someone else. It was different in every way possible from what she had felt for Matthew, from how she had loved him and how he had loved her. Matthew had been the one. There was not doubt about that in her mind. But it didn't mean that she couldn't love someone else. It was simply different.

The sound of two wheels on the gravel brought Mary back from her thoughts. She watched George slow down, then get off his bicycle. She smiled in his direction, ready to greet him, like always. But there was no smile for her in return. As George approached, Mary noticed that something was… well, definitely not all right.

"George what happened?" She almost screamed. There was blood on her son's face. She could see it now that he was closer to her. This couldn't be good. "George"

Without a word he handed a small letter with the school emblem to his mother and then left his bicycle fall on the ground before he started running towards the house.

Dumfounded by her son's actions, such a thing had never happened before, Mary opened the letter quickly. A fight, with two boys in his class_._ Oh dear.

* * *

Mary knocked on George's bedroom door twice. No answer. She opened it a little and peeked in. What she saw broke her heart. Her baby was sitting on his bed, crying, big fat tears running down his cheeks.

She walked in slowly closing the door behind her. She went to the small cabinet, took a towel and the small jar of water that was previously placed there by one of the maids and went back to the bed. Mary sat right next to her son and without a word; she started to clean his face. After a moment George stopped crying, and calmed himself. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

George nodded, slowly. He took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. "We had a surprise presentation at school today." He started, and then took a moment to think about his next sentence. "Mr Walter told us that we needed to speak about the person that we admire the most…"

Sensing her son's hesitation Mary tried to give him her most encouraging smile. She had an idea where this story was going now, his father.

"And I decided to talk about Papa." George told her very quickly.

"Well, that was a marvellous choice." Mary said not understanding when things had gone wrong.

George nodded, glad that his mother also thought that it was a good choice. "But then, during our afternoon recess, Mark and Tommy started to say things…"

"What sorts of things?" Mary inquired.

"Well, they said that it was stupid that I decided to talk about Papa because I never met him. And they also said that he probably never loved me because if he had he would have never left…" New tears appeared in George eyes before he was able to finish.

Mary took him in her arms, like she had been doing for the past nine years, patting his back slowly. Comforting.

"They were so mean Mama. I told them that they were lying but they continued. And I got so angry…"

"So you hit one of them?" Mary guessed.

George looked at his mother. "Both of them actually."

Mary considered this for a moment. She had forgotten how mean kids could be towards each other. "What they said was very wrong, nobody should say things like that. But what you did was not right either."

"I know." George replied sheepishly.

"Well then, if you know. There is nothing more to say on the matter." Mary said softly and kissed her son's forehead seeing the relieved look on his face. She knew that what he had done wasn't right and that perhaps she should have been more severe with him. But he had protected his father in a way and Mary couldn't blame him for that. She probably would have done the same in that situation.

They both heard a small knock on the door and then a little head appeared.

"Elizabeth!" George called his sister.

Seeing her brother, the little girl smiled from ear to ear before running right into his open arms. Her small hands found his face quickly. "Hurt?" She said softly.

"No it doesn't hurt anymore." George told her. "Mama cleaned it all and I'm perfectly fine now. Do you want to come and play?"

Jumping up and down at the idea of playing with her big brother Elizabeth took one of his hands in hers and dragged him out of the room.

Mary watched the exchange between brother and sister and smiled tenderly towards them. They were both getting along so well and that simple fact made her incredibly happy. After a moment she stood up. Even though she hadn't reprimanded her son, she still needed to write to both Mark and Tommy's families. At least she had to pretend that her son was a little sorry for starting the fight.


End file.
